When God was finished with the creation He made, everything in the world was very good. There was nothing out of order, no pin, no suffering, no disease, no struggle for existence, no disharmony, no sin, and above all, no death.But, as we know today, things are not very good in the world. In the physical world, things tend to run down and wear out. In the living world, each animal is engaged in a struggle against other animals and disease as well as the universal process of aging and death. Culturally, one civilization after another seems to rise and fall. As individuals in the moral and spiritual realm, it is easier to do wrong than to do right. Our world is full of hatred, crime, war, pollution, selfishness, corruption evil of all kinds. Something has gone wrong with Gods perfect creation.

Speaker: Mike NobisSunday School Teacher, Former Elder at Madison Park Christian Church. Mike is President of JK Creative Printers & Mailing in Quincy, IL. He is married to Pam and has three children, Tom, Tyler and Jennifer. Mike has three grandchildren: Ryne, Ivy and Alicia.

When God was finished with the creation He made, everything in the world was very good. There was nothing out of order, no pin, no suffering, no disease, no struggle for existence, no disharmony, no sin, and above all, no death.

But, as we know today, things are not very good in the world. In the physical world, things tend to run down and wear out. In the living world, each animal is engaged in a struggle against other animals and disease as well as the universal process of aging and death. Culturally, one civilization after another seems to rise and fall. As individuals in the moral and spiritual realm, it is easier to do wrong than to do right. Our world is full of hatred, crime, war, pollution, selfishness, corruption Ė evil of all kinds. Something has gone wrong with Godís perfect creation.

The question that most often comes up when we talk about evil things in the world, how can a Holy God permit such terrible things to exist? How indeed could evil ever have appeared at all?

Many people find these questions enough to doubt that there is a God. Atheism is founded on this very presence; because there is such evil, there canít be a loving God out there. The only true reasonable answer out there is found in Genesis 3. Paul would write much later these words:

Romans 5:12 (NIV) Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinnedó

Concerning Godís beautiful, perfect creation Paul writes:

Romans 8:20-21 (NIV) For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

True or False: Before the fall, man has nothing within his own nature to lead him to sin.

Up until this point, there was nothing that existed that could persuade man to move in a direction that was against God. Everything around him was perfect and pure. Everything was in harmony and Adam and Eve were always in the presence of God. But what changed the picture, what happened that made the perfect existence into something from hell?

Genesis 3:1 (NIV) Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

What was the first evil introduced into the perfect setting of Godís creation? Doubt!

There is a lot more here in these scriptures than a crafty talking snake seducing the innocence of Eve. The Bible identifies the old serpent as none other than the devil himself. There is a lot written about Satan (Lucifer) and who he is and what his ultimate goal is. Satan was defeated by God before the creation and his whole intent is to destroy all that God had made, especially the greatest creation of all, man and the relationship God so wanted to have with man. In Genesis 3 we will see Satan do exactly that. We will see that Satan strikes out to separate man from his creator.

Do you find is strange that a talking snake didnít seem to startle or frighten Eve. It was though talking to a snake was normal. Was this the case back in Eden?

We donít really know. We know little about the animal kingdom before the fall. Maybe before the fall the snake was found to be beautiful, stood upright and could communicate with humans. Maybe all the animals had the ability to speak and communicate not only with man but also with God especially the ones Adam gave names to. Whatever the situation, the innocence of Eve was soon to be exploited to accomplish a doom on the creation God made.

Genesis 3:1 tells us a lot about how Satan likes to work. What was the strategy Satan used on Eve? She was alone without Adam to counsel her. He introduced something she never knew existed, the possibility to question God.

Notice how he introduced doubt; what was his attitude? Mocking God. What did Satan want Eve to question? Was God really all that good and loving as she thought?

The Lie: There is a lie that first fooled Satan and he now tries to fool us with, God is not all that good and loving and He is not truthful.

Genesis 3:2-5 (NIV) The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. ďFor God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Here I where Satan goes in for the kill. Having led Eve to question Godís authority and goodness, he now leads Eve to actually sin. He does it by telling her two truths that were also lies. They were the lies that deceived Eve into believing that what was actually evil was something very good.

What were the two truths that were actually evil lies? God was holding a truth back that He didnít want her to know. Your eyes will be opened and you will know good and evil.

What were true? What were false? God didnít want them to know the actual reality of sin and their eyes were opened just like Satan said but not as gods.

The next few verses are probably the most important verses in the Bible as related to man.

Genesis 3:6-7 (NIV) When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

So why did Eve do it? Also notice that Eve gave some to Adam and he ate.

The description found in Genesis 3 for why Adam and Eve disobeyed runs parallel to what John wrote in his first letter to the churches:

1 John 2:15-16 (NIV) Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world.

It is not clear how Eve got Adam to eat the fruit. Scholars believe that Adam was not with Eve at the moment Satan caused Eve to doubt God and eat. Eve is the prototype of all sinners as we are impelled to lead others participate in the same sins. She urged Adam to eat probably using the same reasoning given to her by Satan. But her sin is different than Adamís sin.

1 Timothy 2:14 (NIV) And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.

I love it when men go to this verse and point the finger at women as to the reason why sin first came into the world as though it was all womanís fault. But what does this say about Adamís sin? He knew better, rather than helping Eve not sin against God, he willfully participated in doing what he knew as wrong and ate the fruit.

Eve was deceived because she was innocent and didnít really know any better, but Adam was told directly by God not to eat from the tree.

Genesis 3:8-13 (NIV) Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

Here in this passage we see the basic elements of man in his fallen state and the effects sin has on us. Satan did tell the truth to Adam and Eve, they did know good and evil but most of all, they now knew the difference. Sin brought on immediate guilt which caused them to run and hide.

Once Adam and Eve sinned, they had a decision to make, what was it? Do they confess to God what they did wrong or to they try and hide their sin?

What did they decide to do? They chose to hide! They did not confess. There is one good thing from this, they did feel guilty.

How did God find out that Adam ate from the tree (notice it was Adam God asked the questions to, not Eve).
ē For the first time there was a separation from GodÖGod went looking for them
ē For the first time man experienced nakedness

I find how God reacts in this case to something He already knew is something that will be played out all throughout the Bible when dealing with a relationship with man. If God was made at Adam and Eve, He could of destroyed them and started over. Instead he asked the questions to get man to confess and tell him what he did that was wrong. In relationship with us, He moves us to confess, not hide from him.

When God asked if Adam ate from the tree, what was his response? What was Eveís response?

In our next lesson, we will see the results of manís decision to sin and how that decision affected every human from then on until us today. What is fascinating about Adam and Eve, we see nowhere when Adam and Eve actually confess that what they did against God was wrong. All that we read are the excuses for why they sinned, not the actual confession.

Who knows what might have happened had Adam and Eve immediately after they sinned went looking for God and openly confessed their sin. Yes, what they did was wrong but it was the confession that God wanted, not excuses. Maybe they could have stayed in Eden but because of their lack of confession to their disobedience, they were banished.